Goodyear’s Oxygene Tire Uses Moss to Capture CO2 and Produce Oxygen

Check out Oxygene, a “concept tire” from Goodyear. Concept tire is like a concept car—it shows what might be, rather than what is. But it’s intensely cool. Firstly, the tire is 3D printed from rubber powder made from recycled tires. It’s the moss, though, that’s weirdly awesome. That’s right, moss, because Goodyear fills the center mass of the tire with moss. The tire captures road moisture—improving grip on the way—and feeds it to the moss. The moss also captures CO2 and does what moss does, turns it into oxygen via photosynthesis. According to Futurism magazine, “In a city roughly the size of Paris, Goodyear estimates these tires could produce 3,000 tons of oxygen and absorb over 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year.” Wow. That would turn cars—especially electric cars—into part of the solution to anthropomorphic climate change.

It is an interesting idea but not without potential problems and risks. Aside from the obvious (how does the moss stay within the tire), the animation is clearly a city-like environment and only the rain. What about those from the northern areas of the United States and Canada that experience weather worse than rain? Could it handle the streets in, say, midtown Manhattan, an area not known to be friendly to “modern” tires? What about its off-road capabilities?